August 13th Weekly Word

Don't Miss the Main Thing

"Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem..." (Matthew 15:1a).

Since most of us are unfamiliar with ancient Middle Eastern geography, it's easy to overlook details in Scripture that mention travel or location But sometimes it's helpful to investigate those details. Like in this case, where I think it's enlightening to know that the Pharisees and scribes probably spent a good four days of arduous travel, much of it uphill, to journey from Jerusalem to Gennesaret to find Jesus.

When you consider it, you might at first be lured into thinking that it was commendable for the these religious leaders to travel so far to see the Lord. But then you read what they ask him upon arrival:

“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.”

Really? You traveled the better part of a week on foot to ask about ritual hand washing?

And if that's not bad enough, consider how they found Jesus. It had to be the trail of healings and miracles that he left in his wake. Every stop these religious leaders made, they would have heard fresh stories about what Jesus did — from the many healings to the feeding of the multitudes.

And beyond that, note what they witnessed when they found him in Gennesaret?

"When [Jesus and the disciples] had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed" (Matthew 14:34-36).

The remarkable thing here is that the Pharisees and scribes don’t comment or inquire about any of that. Instead they harass Jesus because the disciples didn’t ritually wash their hands — a practice, by the way, that was not part of the Mosaic law but rather added as a tradition many centuries later.

And so they missed the fact that the Messiah was in their midst doing miracles in front of their faces because they were worried about petty rules and petty things.

But why is that? Well, because they were their petty things and their petty rules, and they were afraid of losing them. So their importance became inflated to the degree that real ministry didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that people did those things exactly as they'd always been done.

No wonder Jesus called them blind guides.

But as we shake our heads at the Pharisees and scribes here, let's not miss the lesson for ourselves. Do we vehemently guard that which we consider "ours" and in so doing elevate petty things to primary status?

And along those lines, are we so committed to the way things have always been that we're in danger of missing out on the new thing God is doing in our midst?

Take stock, friends. What are we afraid of losing? Where are those defensive places in our hearts? Because that’s where we’ll find in our spirit a potential opposition to God's new work among us.

Instead of a defensive posture, let's instead lift our eyes and open our hearts to Christ among us — leading us toward new life and new creation as we seek to know him and make him known.

Darin+